“Isn’t it Obvious?” Part Four

“Isn’t it Obvious?” Part Three “Isn’t it Obvious?” Part Five

“Isn’t it Obvious?” Part Four

Missed anything? Here’s Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

…

Beautiful flowers!

Happy Birthday! Wish I’d sent those, but no money =(

HBD! It wasn’t me. That note sounds like it’s from a boy…

Oooooh! So romantic!

Happy Cake Day! Can’t wait to find out who your secret admirer is!

During a lull in the afternoon, Jasmine scrolled through the comments on the pictures of her birthday bouquet she’d put up on social media. The consensus between her friends and family seemed to be that the flowers must have come from a man.

A sinking feeling came over her. She’d exhausted all possible options. They hadn’t come from a close family member or any of her friends online. It wasn’t Kyle, and her boss hadn’t had any suggestions.

What if I really do have a stalker? What if some creeper found out about my birthday and sent these to me?

But who would possibly be stalking her? A library patron maybe? She narrowed her eyes as she thought. Nobody came to mind.

Jasmine let her head hit her desk. She should be enjoying the beautiful blooms, but their mysterious origins haunted her. I should just accept that I’m never going to figure it out.

When the clock struck six, Jasmine was finishing up her shift at the circulation desk. She’d survived the rush of children and parents after school. Now everyone was eating dinner, presumably, and the lobby of the library was quiet. She had the perfect seat to watch Dylan plod down the stairs toward the entrance. He caught her gaze and walked toward her.

“How’d your performance review go?”

“Fine.” He blew out a breath. “Good, actually.”

Jasmine bit her lip. The last time she’d seen him, she’d been convinced that Kyle, the barista, had feelings for her and had sent her the flowers as a romantic gesture. She didn’t want to admit her failure, but she knew it would come out sooner or later. She had to confess the fact that, not only did Kyle not have a crush on her, he had a devastatingly beautiful girlfriend. To her surprise, Dylan brought it up first.

“So, how’d it go with Kyle? Are you two a couple now?” He didn’t look up as he tapped and reorganized the file folders in his hands.

“No. I didn’t ask him, and we are not a couple.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“Kyle has a girlfriend. A very gorgeous girlfriend.” She shrugged and fiddled with the stack of bookmarks in front of her. “It was silly, anyway.”

He didn’t respond. Maybe Dylan agreed with her that nobody could possibly have a crush on her.

“I mean, everyone online seems to think whoever sent those flowers to me was a guy. And Granny Mae was sure they were some grand romantic gesture.” She swiveled back and forth in her chair. “But apparently not.”

“So you can’t think of anyone else? Anyone?” He stared at her, his expression baffled.

“What do you mean?” Was Dylan rubbing in the fact there wasn’t a single person in the world who might have feelings for her?

“I mean, why don’t you think it might have been me?”

“Wha-?”

“It was me, Jaz. I sent you the flowers. Is that so impossible to imagine?”

A million thoughts whizzed through her brain. Dylan? Weren’t they just friends? Why didn’t he say something earlier? Did he mean them to be romantic? Or was he just being nice?

She tried to say something, but her mouth hung open stupidly and her eyebrows remained in their highest position.

Dylan’s face morphed from irritated to angry to hurt. And Jasmine didn’t do anything to stop it.

“I just thought …” He sighed and stepped away from the counter. “Sorry if I ruined your birthday with the flowers. I guess the feelings are one-sided.”

At the worst possible time, an elderly lady stepped up to the circulation desk. And Dylan walked away.

She should’ve run after him. The lady would’ve waited. But Jasmine could not get over the shock of Dylan’s revelation.

The lady had a sizable stack of books as well as a couple DVDs on hold Jasmine had to fetch from the back. Then she wanted information on the advanced crochet group meeting next Thursday. By the time the woman finally walked through the front doors, Jasmine knew Dylan was well on his way home.

Sue came from the back room to relieve her, and Jasmine walked to her desk to collect her things. Well, just two things, really. Her tiny brown purse and a massive vase full of beautiful flowers.

All the way home, Jasmine kept glancing at the bouquet fastened tight with a seat belt. She lugged the flowers up the stairs to the apartment she shared with her friend Ashley.

“Hey, Jaz! Look at those!” Ashley, who usually came home an hour earlier than Jasmine, had already changed out of her work clothes and into a sundress for the party that evening. She cleared a space on the table for the bouquet. “Did you ever figure out who sent them to you?”

Jasmine nodded, sitting in one of the barstools behind the kitchen counter.

Ashley held out her hands impatiently. “Who was it?”

“Dylan.”

“Ha! I knew it!” She pumped a fist. “I knew he liked you.”

“How’d you know? I had no idea. I thought we were just friends. I insisted to everyone that we were just friends.” She shook her head. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I wanted to be sure. And I didn’t want to mess up his game.” Ashley grabbed a glass from the cabinet. “So? What’d you say when you found out?”

“Nothing. I just stared at him.”

“Umm, okay. And how did that go?”

“Not well.”

Ashley opened the fridge and poured herself a glass of water from their filtered pitcher. She frowned at Jasmine and handed her the glass. Jasmine supposed she looked in need of sustenance.

“Thanks.” The cool water helped to steady her nerves.

“Do you like Dylan back?”

Did she? Mere hours ago, Jasmine was talking herself out of thinking of Dylan in that way. Only to discover Dylan had a crush on her all along. For exactly how long, she didn’t know.

So could she move Dylan out of the friend zone? Could she actually let herself have feelings for him?

“I think so, yes.” A flutter started up inside of her. She did like him. She’d always thought he was impossibly cute, smart, and kind. She’d just never dreamed he might think the same things about her.

“So what are you going to do?”

…

Come back tomorrow for the fifth and final part of the story!

Click Here to subscribe to my newsletter and get more fun freebies, book reviews, and updates every month.